A video conference system enables people in different places to perform remote communication and collaboration face to face. A participant of a site can see participants of other sites through a display screen, and hear the voice of the current speaker at other sites through an audio device, which enables the participant to feel as if all participants are present at a same physical site. At present, many video conference systems display the participants in real size to improve the efficiency and effect of communication between participants at different sites; in this way, the display screen at a site can hardly display all participants at other sites simultaneously.
For example, three participants A1, A2, and A3 are at site A, while display screens of other sites can display only two of them, such as A1 and A2; when A3 needs to speak, it is necessary to enable participants of other sites to see the image of A3 through display screens; in this case, video switching is required.
In the prior art, video switching is implemented during a video conference in the following ways:
(1) A switching button is installed in front of each participant at the site. When a participant needs to speak and participants of other sites need to see the speaker, the speaker can press the switching button, notifying the system to perform video switching, so that the participants of other sites can see the video of the speaker through display screens.
(2) A conference administrator is arranged at each site to perform manual video switching. When it is necessary to switch to the video of the current speaker, the conference administrator judges which participant is speaking through senses such as sight and hearing, and then performs video switching manually, so that participants of other sites can see the video of the current speaker through display screens.
In the process of implementing the video switching during the video conference, the inventor finds at least the following problem in the prior art:
No matter whether the speaker or the conference administrator performs video switching, the switching is a manual process, which tends to interrupt the progress of the conference or cause problems such as video switching errors, thus affecting the efficiency of the conference.